June 21, 2011

"Taking Off the Uniform": Anthony Road Prepares to Release Riesling Made with Native Yeast

By Evan Dawson, Finger Lakes Editor

On special occasions, Anthony Road Wine Company winemaker Johannes Reinhardt hauls out a long, unlabeled bottle. It's marked only with the letters "SP." Those letters represent one important and potentially game-changing word.

Spontaneous.

In 2009, Reinhardt decided to experiment with natural, or spontaneous, fermentation. He created a small batch of riesling, only 80 cases, for the purpose of studying the differences between the usage of cultivated yeast and native yeast.

This is a small step, but potentially one with large implications for the Finger Lakes wine industry. Anthony Road is a leader in riesling quality, and if this project turns out to be successful, it would not be surprising to see other producers follow suit.

But that's getting ahead of ourselves.

"Taking off the uniform"

Most Finger Lakes winemakers use cultivated (or "commercial") yeast to guide fermentations. Reinhardt has always done the same. Part of his desire to experiment with native yeast comes from his curiosity about what other characteristics might emerge in Finger Lakes wines.

"Cultivated yeast provides a kind of uniform," he says. "The wines might show similar characteristics, similar aromas and flavors. There's nothing wrong with that. But natural yeast removes the uniform, let's say it that way."

The result from his first effort with native yeast presents a kind of riesling that is markedly different. With 16 grams of residual sugar but blessed with high acidity, it's a wine that straddles dry and semi-dry. Johannes noticed the changes immediately.

"It's just different," he says. "It doesn't have the notes of sweeter fruits in the nose, no banana or pear, for example. There is a different set of aromas. And in the mouth it is quite different. There is this intriguing structure, more grip, a very interesting texture. There is more weight and good tension."

This riesling will become one of a small handful of wines in the region to be made in this method. Bloomer Creek uses spontaneous fermentation, and Hermann J. Wiemer uses less cultivated yeast than most. Reinhardt referred to the Wiemer method as "an inspiration."

Reinhardt explains that using native yeast might allow the wines to better display vintage variation. "I would expect that to be the case, and I hope that's the case," he says. "I'm someone who enjoys seeing the differences from year to year, and I do wonder if cultivated yeast helps mask those differences."

Many of the best wines of Germany are made with native yeast, and that fact is not lost on Reinhardt, a German with great respect for his home country.

"It will take years to get comfortable"

Despite Reinhardt's enthusiasm for this project, he is humble about the early results. After producing 80 cases of spontaneously fermented riesling in 2009, Reinhardt produced 102 in 2010 and is aiming to make closer to 200 in 2011, along with some gewurztraminer.

"But that's still a small amount of wine, you know?" he says. "Nothing has gotten out of hand so far, so that's good. But it'll take years go get comfortable, probably five or six or seven years for me."

In 2009, Reinhardt had to exercise patience, "which is not always easy for a German to do," he explains. After clarifying the juice, Reinhardt prepared it for fermentation and then waited. "After a week, nothing," he says. "After two weeks, still nothing. I was not nervous because I knew the juice would do what it wanted to do. But after three weeks, you could finally hear the fermentation taking place. It had started on its own."

In 2010 he only needed to wait seven days for the fermentation to begin. And despite the occasional association of natural wine with some of the wilder aspects of winemaking, Reinhardt insists that cleanliness is key. "You simply must have a clean facility, and you have to fill your tanks," he says, explaining that full tanks will ward off early oxidation.

Ultimately, Reinhardt can envision making most of his wine in this method. "But that's a long road to go," he says with a smile. "I'm just trying to gain experience. I have so much to learn."

First release coming soon

Don't ask Reinhardt if he thinks wine made with spontaneous fermentation is better. He says it's far too soon to know -- and he will continue to use cultivated yeast in most of his winemaking for now. After all, some of the most highly regarded wines in the world are made with cultivated yeast. "There's no right or wrong here," he says. "I think we're all just trying to do the best we can."

The Anthony Road 2009 Spontaneous Fermentation Riesling will be released in September, Reinhardt says, likely for around $20. They will have to figure out what to call it. Reinhardt might downplay its significance, but for a producer of Anthony Road's stature, everyone will be watching and tasting this riesling.

Comments

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Preventing the influence of other yeast at harvest can be pretty difficult (using the same hoses/valves/pumps/tanks/winery space etc.) I was wondering if either Evan or Johannes could comment on how one keeps things sterilized (beyond being sanitized) in order to assure only the native yeast is working?

I ask because this discussion usually comes up when speaking with a scientist for controlled experiments - especially with yeasts.

I absolutely applaud all the things that Johannes is doing, and he is leading the way in many respects. Let us hereby agree that semantics matter, and that ALL YEASTS ARE NATURAL, whether they have come from a tetra-brick or have colonized the winery. I only care because the assumption (to the lay reader) is that introduced yeasts are not natural.

Peter - You know that I am careful with language; I think I'm one of the few writers who uses mesoclimate in place of microclimate. So regarding "natural" yeast, I take the point. I'm changing all references that are not quotations to "native." Just know that in this case, I simply employed the term used by the winemaker.

Evan: I think that even "native" yeasts can be problematic in this instance. "Native" implies that the yeasts doing the bulk of the work in the ferments are "native" to either the vineyard or the winery.

Based on my understanding of this sort of fermentation, at least some of the yeasts (and sometimes the ones that end up dominating, because they are bread to be hearty) end up being yeasts that were previously purchased and inoculated. I think the only way to know which yeasts are doing what is to spend lots of money on DNA testing -- which no one expects to be done.

I've used "natural" and "native" and "wild" in the past, but I think my current thinking points to "ambient"

The discussion on this subject is interesting and reveals that there is ambiguity when it comes to microbiology. Which yeast dominates the fermentation? Who knows. But if you have a good microscope and you know your yeasts you may find out. In the end, unless there is a demonstrable quality that emerges, does it really matter. And the point made above by Peter Bell and amplified by Evan and Lenn needs no further elaboration.
Another thing to look for is how the wine will taste after 2 years. We all know that in a young wine there are many "fermentation" aromas. Batches of the same fruit fermented with different yeasts will show dramatic difference in sensorial qualities. Yet it is frequently true that after a couple years they will converge again showing the prevailing mark of the grape rather than the yeast.
In conclusion, the function of yeast is to convert sugar to alcohol. And that microbe does that job rather well, whether it was grown and packaged or whether it it was untamed in the wild.

Charles - Why do you think there are so many winemakers in Europe who would disagree with your last statement? (And not to fall prey to semantics again; what I'm saying is that many European winemakers would not so casually declare that yeast is just fine whether it's cultivated and sold or "untamed in the wild.")

Which part do they disagree with? It is well known that yeast, regardless of its provenance, does ferment the sugar. If anyone disagrees then I will have learned something here. Also the major yeast companies are European and their US market is small in relation to what they sell in Europe.

By the way I am not advocating to using one or the other as we do use both avenues. And as Tom Higgins points out it is quite a challenge in a winery to insure that it is in fact the native yeast that prevails as the flora of the winery may already be populated with other yeasts.

What comes out in such conversations is that native yeasts rarely include saccaromyce cerevisiae and researchers have had a difficult time isolating it in newly planted vineyards, other than coming from the winery: it is accepted that while some other yeasts than SC will start the fermentation, it is typically the SC that finishes it as it dominates.

When lees and press solids are returned to the vineyard floors, yeast may be propagated in this manner and when it returns to the winery will it then be considered native or cultured? It is a complicated topic and our urge to want to understand everything may lead us to questionable conclusions.

I accept that language matters here. But how sad that the only real discussion seems to be about what to call the yeast, and not whether the approach is worthwhile.

Charles - Sigh. I bent over backward to make my point clear, and you found a way to miss it! Yes, everyone agrees on the point of yeast. But some of the best winemakers disagree when you minimize the importance of which type of yeast is used. That's what I'm saying.

Surprised by your response.
I do not see where I minimize it.
If you disagree with the notion of convergence I invite you to take a batch of grapes, divide it up and ferment them with 2 different yeasts of your choice. When you taste them after the fermentation they will taste different but a couple of years later you will be surprised how they will have converged.
There is no other way that I can convince you or anyone else I am afraid. And with that I submit that in the end it is the grape that prevails. I did try this years ago and I have not kept any samples as I blended them together given the lack of significant difference. But I did learn something useful. I really have no skin in this game but was offering you a perspective that perhaps you did not have a chance to be exposed to. So rather than annoy you some more I will now drop out of this thread.

I fear we are falling victim to the internet's failure to convey tone. I was trying to convey whimsy, some light-hearted exasperation. That's all. I wanted to point out that we all can agree about the purpose of yeast.

Now, I am not so dogmatic as to be unable to enjoy some education. I don't have skin in this fight, either; I enjoy buying and drinking wines made with all kinds of yeast. I find it interesting that even the attempt to control which kind of yeast carries the fermentation is difficult and, perhaps, futile.

When you say that in the end, the grape prevails... That is of great comfort. That is what we all hope to see. However, when winemakers describe a "uniform," I read that to say that while the grape is able to show its stuff, it is pushed in a certain direction by the choice of yeast. Does that mean the grape is not allowed to succeed? I certainly wouldn't say so. But it opens the conversation beyond the notion of the grape always prevailing, doesn't it?

With regard to what we should call uninoculated yeasts, the term I like best is 'feral', which essentially means 'escaped from domestication'. Yes, there are plenty of yeasts out there on the grapes, but the ones that take a fermentation though to dryness have been shown to be domesticated ones.

I happen to agree with his philosophy with regard to the perception of uniformity in the use of commercially available yeast cultures. The terminology is mostly semantic however and when it comes to this discussion one has to remember that all yeasts that live with use are more or less "domesticated." Yeasts are in fact one of the first organisms to become domesticated by humans as they have been selected over thousands of years to perform the duties we have charged them with.

With regard to the populations that exist within a certain estate, the current research has shown that every winery/vineyard develops its own unique combination of yeast inside and out - both Saccharomyces and Non-Saccharomyces strains. The factors in the vineyard - location, exposure and orientation, as well as the specifics of the internal winery including temperature, equipment, and building construction all lead to a specific evolution and balance of yeast strains. Also as mentioned earlier in this thread, the effects of the NS strains of yeast have a huge influence on fermentation aromas and flavors as NS strains are typically not allowed to develop under conventional inoculation and S02 addition at crush. Some of these NS strains are thought to produce esters enzymatically. Also recent work is showing that some NS strains will still be quite active even towards the end of fermentation. A good article on this can be found here:

It takes time to develop this unique flora and it requires a different set of thinking with regards to vineyard practices and winery sanitation. But there is no doubt that over time there is clearly a special ecosystem that develops specific to every winery and vineyard - one that is no longer influenced by one strain.

Typically, a cool, maritime climate like the North Fork of Long Island will breed greater populations of Non-Saccharomyces flora than drier and warmer areas. The result is the North Fork – as well as the east coast in general – is fertile ground for spontaneous fermentation.

To me, most importantly, Bedell Cellars has its own family of native yeast. Some live around us in the winery while others enter from the vineyard – reuniting each year like old friends and families. They evolved and established themselves – unbeknownst to us – in sustainable proportions in order to survive and prosper. One can see terroir come full circle through the ecology of spontaneous fermentation and manifest itself within our wines.

Should the writer cater to that? Or try to challenge the readers with something new? The brave, gutsy, "correct" answer is the second one -- but you can't challenge anyone if your sales are too low to get any more books published. Readers buy what they want to read, not what someone thinks they should read.